The invention generally relates to an outdoor rotisserie assembly utilizing a spit basket for an oven-type baking. In particular the invention relates to a self-contained rotisserie cabinet and hood adaptable for use as a removable attachment to outdoor grills having means for easily positioning a full loaded spit basket.
Outdoor rotisserie cooking usually involves the rotation of a spit basket over a heat source, which can accommodate a whole pig, lamb, or several portions of poultry, turkey, roasts or pork loins. Often, the spit basket is adjustable to accommodate different portions of food items to be cooked.
In conjunction with rotisserie cooking techniques, it has been found difficult to easily maneuver a spit basket filled with large portions of food to and from the heat source. It has also become a need of the caterers and other commercial food vending businesses to be afforded fast access to the interior of the rotisserie oven for basting, cutting, seasoning the food or otherwise for tending to the heat source, which might be charcoal, lava rocks, gas burners, mesquite and the like.
It is also a concern amongst commercial eating establishments, to allow serving portions of food from the side of the rotisserie oven that is away from the chef's working area.
In providing grill-type devices it has become a further goal of the food preparation industry to provide for an attachable rotisserie assembly that may simply be mounted onto an existing firebox of a grill without screws, clips, bolts or other fasteners, whereby just by slipping on and off of a cabinet housing and hood a grill may be converted to a pig roaster, for example.
In conjunction with providing a rotisserie cabinet and hood attachment for existing grill devices, it is further desirable if the spit basket containing the food items to be cooked could be easily maneuvered into a locked position in the rotisserie oven ready to be thereafter connected to the rotisserie motor shaft in an easy and safe manner.
It would be a further benefit to provide for a rotisserie oven that has a breadbox-type hood over a rotisserie cabinet which can open either from the front or back of the oven so that the cook may tend to basting the food item or tending to the heat source from either side, and in addition have the option of serving food from one side of the oven while tending to cooking chores from the other. This feature would be very useful for outdoor cooking events such as at large picnics and other social gatherings where hundreds of people will be participating in the meal.
It is therefore another sought-after goal to provide a breadbox-type hood in which the end walls of the hoods allow for opening and closing the hood from either side and wherein upon closing the hoods the end walls are formed to seat atop the end walls of rotisserie cabinet and prevent sideward and outward heat loss from the hot oven.
It has also been desired that a removable front panel for a rotisserie cabinet be provided so that the heat source may be tended, restoked, etc., such as would be the case when using charcoal residing in the firebox below the item to be cooked. It is further a objective of the invention to provide such a removable front cabinet panel that does not require the disassembly of the rest of the rotisserie cabinet whereby the spit basket can stay engaged to the rotisserie motor during removal of the front panel.
It is a concomitant object to provide a demountable rotisserie cabinet that offers a drip pan beneath the spit basket area to collect grease drippings and avoid flame-ups caused by grease and fat dripping from the meat or poultry items.
It is in conjunction with the desired for an efficient drip panel to also provide for a drain means that allows for the quick draining of the liquefied fats and oils from the pan outwardly of the rotisserie oven to be collected and removed.
The present invention satisfies the foregoing desires and needs of the cooking industry, particularly commercial caterers who provide meals for large numbers of people. The present invention provides a rotisserie cabinet that is made in the form of a removable housing attachable around the walls of a firebox of an existing grill device without the need for bolts, screws or other fastening attachments.
Further, a two part breadbox-type hood is provided for pivoting attachment to the rotisserie cabinet and which sealingly covers over the rotisserie cabinet but allows for access to either side of the spit basket.
The invention further provides for hood support panels at either end of the cabinet that provide pivot means for the breadbox-type hood and offer a heat bearier across the ends of the rotisserie cabinet to reduce heat loss.
The opposing end walls of the rotisserie cabinet are provided with a pair of roller brackets and rollers for rotationally supporting axle shafts of a spit basket until the chef disengages the rotisserie motor to remove the spit basket.
The rotisserie assembly provides for safe and sure rolling and loading maneuverability for the spit basket along its support axle shafts into roller brackets which requires little effort considering that the basket and retained foods items could weigh over one hundred pounds.
A front panel of the removable rotisserie cabinet is separately removable from the cabinet by the provision of upwardly slidable lock pins engaging sockets at the end walls of the cabinet whereby the front panel can be removed while the hood and other three walls of the rotisserie cabinet remain in place relative to the spit basket in order to allow the chef to, for example, tend to the fire or season the food items being cooked.
The removable rotisserie cabinet further provides for mounting a rotisserie motor at either end wall.
The breadbox-type hood is provided with dual pivoting inside and outside hoods that may be alternately opened from the front or back of the oven to grant access to the interior of the rotisserie cabinet from either side.
A front hood is provided to be hingedly movable to an open position slightly greater than 90 degrees from vertical so that complete access to the food items being cooked is achieved.
The roller bracket and rollers and the hood support panels at opposite ends cooperate with notched upper edges of the end walls of the rotisserie cabinet to allow for the spit basket to be rolled along support axles through slots in the hood support panels in a secure and controlled manner for loading and unloading the spit basket.
The invention further includes overlapping lower flanges of the rotisserie cabinet walls over the flanged top edges of the firebox walls to form an overlapped seal between flanges on the breadbox hood and upper flanges of the rotisserie cabinet.
The two hoods are separately pivotable past each other - allowing one to be open and one to remain closed.
The front part of the hood is preferably the outer pivoting hood and is provided with handles and a thermometer communicating interiorly of the rotisserie cabinet to monitor temperature.
The rotisserie cabinet includes a trough-like inclined drip pan that slopes to a drain opening through one end wall of the rotisserie cabinet. A chain extends from the drain opening downwardly to a receptacle whereby the liquefied fats and oils are removed efficiently from the rotisserie cabinet and wherein the drip pan prevents flame-up at the heat source.
The drip pan also provides rigidification to the rotisserie cabinet as it is fixedly secured from end wall to end wall of the rotisserie cabinet.
The end walls are preferably fixedly attached to the back wall of the rotisserie cabinet whereby to be easily carried as a unit and mounted atop the firebox walls of a grill device.
The breadbox-type hood provides the front and rear pivoting hoods to further include bent lip portions for rigidity along the central adjacent long upper edge of each when closed.